Work and Rest

 March 2, 2023

I don’t know how I did it. When I was working, Thursdays were my day to be in the office, hopefully finishing up my sermon for Sunday. It was an all-day affair, week after week, year after year. Today after our early men’s prayer group, I came home, sat down and began to work. It’s now nearly 3:00 pm, and my mind is pretty much mush. I don’t know when I passed my prime, but it’s surely somewhere behind me. 

There is still plenty to be done, but pushing through like I used to just doesn’t work anymore. This morning’s reading was in the book of Hebrews where the author warns of missing the rest God has for his people because of our hardness and unbelief of heart. 

“Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness,” —Hebrews 3:7-8

I’ve always thought of that hardness and unbelief in terms of committing sins that render our hearts and minds impervious to the Gospel, but I’m beginning to think a bit differently.

Work is good. At the very beginning, God told us to follow his example and work six days. We’ve reduced that to five, and more recently, four, but only if you really want to. Thousands of able-bodied people are refusing to work, citing low pay, lack of benefits, and just plain disinterest. Unless one is truly disabled, unable to work, such behavior is sinful. Plain and simple. It’s direct and deliberate disobedience to one of the Ten Commandments. 

On the other end of the scale are those who can’t seem to relax; those who cannot get their hands off the wheel for even a moment. I’ve at times fallen into that category. I didn’t take vacations, skimped on days off, working without a break often for weeks at a time. And now in retirement, I find myself still thinking the day is a loss if I didn’t accomplish something—if I didn’t work. And I’m finding that keeping the nose to the grindstone doesn’t make me accomplish more; it only wears out my nose.

“There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.”

—Hebrews 4:9-111

So the promise of rest in Hebrews 3 and 4 is one of God’s ways of reminding us that he is God and we are not. If I refuse to rest, it indicates my unbelief in the care and provision of God, that I don’t trust him to do his work, as in “God, you can’t handle this without me.” Talk about arrogance! So, I’m working on letting go. Did you catch that—“working on” letting go? I guess there’s more work to be done than I realize. But it’s God’s work, not mine. Right now, I’m going to take a break. My mind is tired, and as it turns out, so is my butt. Time to get moving!